SAG is dragging its feet. As I type this its Sunday, April 6th 2008 at 141am. Alan Rosenberg Pres of SAG said they have time to negoiate their contract. No they dont. The contract expires JUNE 30th, thats 11 weeks.
I am so convinced that SAG doesnt care if they strike. The reason being ios that the actors in film and primetime TV make enough money from a series or one film to last them a while if a strike is pro-longed

But SAG and Rosenberg need to wake up and realize thatthe crews of these films and TV shows rely on that weekly pay check. They have mortages to pay etc. How about looking out for your crew SAG. AFTRA is doing that, you should be too. Stop playing the blame game, go lock urself in a room with the producers and don’t come out til an agreement is reached. thats your main concern right now, nOTHING ELSE.

Bill, do you think for one minute that the networks would ever allow the soaps under the jurisdiction of SAG? It’s never, ever going to happen in a million years, and you know that even if you won’t admit it’s because it’s so much cheaper to go with AFTRA. So why is this being dragged in as a pretext for AFTRA to jump ship? It’s a non-starter and a distraction, and it calls into doubt AFTRA’s motivations, wouldn’t you say? The B&B cast aren’t idiots, and will realize that since their only opinions are AFTRA or no union representation, NOT SAG, decertifying is pointless.

Yeah, well, if Sag actually did “raid” AFTRA shows, the compensation would shoot up into the stratosphere, which AFTRA should welcome if they’re for the best interests of all and not just protecting their own turf/power (an accusation that’s often wrongly levelled against WGA and SAG yet applies to IATSE and AFTRA). And BTW, the networks won’t allow it ever. So why are we even discussing it? Meanwhile, AFTRA is invading SAG’s jurisdiction in primetime, undercutting SAG by offering cut rate deals to the AMPTP and hurting everyone. If you were the AFL, what would you care about? ‘Damn that SAG, trying to improve pay and working conditions for actors. Why can’t they be more like AFTRA and bend over.’ AFL and AMPTP, not the same entity. AFTRA needs to stop this pissing contest and realize that actors doing better really isn’t a bad thing even if it does make the Big 8 unhappy.

And the ratty crits put forth by SAG officers about AFTRA health plans, etc., are simply more of the clannish flag waving by SAG actors who were lucky enough to be elected to the SAG Board and are now making an amateur career out of union-busting & raiding — illegal under Article 20 of AFL-CIO Constitution.

Instead of AFTRA pulling out of negotiation on contracts that have nothing to do with soaps, based on what seems to be disgruntled actors talking to their other union and asking them if there’s something they can do for them and being given advice, why doesn’t AFTRA do something about fixing whatever problem the B&B actors have that has led them to seek decertification. And can you show us a document/petition/vote form that SAG circulated to those actors to get them to actually vote to change-over? Because talking is not criminal. Asking questions of a union is not criminal. I’ve been in a few unions in my time and there are times you take your frustrations to your union and ask if you can help. Sometimes they even say no. But just listening doesn’t mean they are undercutting you.

And with all the saber-rattling at SAG for listening to the B&B’s complaints, I’ve yet to hear of AFTRA addressing or doing anything about the complaints so the B&B actors would change their minds about wanting to decertify.

That should tell you a bit about what the AFL-CIO thinks should have happened to save the SAG/AFTRA joint negotiations, contrasted with Mr. Allen’s & the Hollywood SAG Board’s intentions: to raid AFTRA shows - illegal under Article 20 of the AFL-CIO Constitution.

How can you negotiate with a partner like that? You can’t. Mr. Allen’s actions have driven AFTRA to the table by itself and brought the Screen Actors Guild closer to the brink of genuine peril for all its members.

The Bold & Beautiful decertification petition was/is circulated by actors on that show, and SAG sent those actors back to Aftra.

Soap Operas are covered by the NetCode, strictly Aftra. SAG has no jurisdiction.

We are talking about two different contracts. The TV/Theatrical contract which is/was jointly bargained by SAG and Aftra has nothing to do with Soaps.

It is apples and oranges. To use a cast of unhappy actors seeking a remedy in a NetCode contract as a way of ending Phase 1 is disingenuous, to say the least.

Now, we are in a new paradigm. Aftra has all the proposals jointly and unanimously agreed upon by a hard-working group of actors from both SAG and Aftra last Wednesday. (I do wonder why Aftra did not bring up the decertification issue in that meeting, and suspend Phase 1 then, instead of waiting till the last possible minute at Saturday’s lead-up to the Joint National Board meeting that was to show solidarity on the proposals.)

My concern is that actors will be hurt by Aftra going first into negotiations in what they call Exhibit A (primetime network scripted programming). Aftra has already low-balled actors in Basic-Cable (also Phase 1), with inferior wages & residual giveaways, so given this past behaviour, I do not hold much hope that actors will be treated any better in Exhibit A.

Yes, obviously the problem is EVERYBODY ELSE.

My point isn’t that we must go on strike, it’s that we can’t rule it out until we get what we need, and we can’t let other considerations stop us from getting what we need or we’ll end up with a shitty deal like the WGA’s, and for the same reason.

I’m anything but strike-happy. Like everyone else, I lost plenty during the writers strike, and I sure as hell hope we don’t have to follow suit.

But I absolutely can “take it” more, lots more, for as long as I have to.

And I wholeheartedly agree with Actor Bob about a potential SAG strike. SAG must go forward with a strike with no thought toward the WGA strike. The AMPTP has to improve their offerings.

I know a lot of what’s flying around about AFTRA suspending Phase One can appear as minutiae and insider baseball, but the devil is in the details.

I just read on one of the actors’ blogs the following and now oft-repeated statement: “Screen Actors Guild never wanted to end Phase One…”

…And Mars is made of Marzipan…

From SAG Board motions on “bloc voting” and “proportionality,” to a SAG-promulgated anti-Phase One petition paid for with SAG members’ dues money, to a threatened Phase One-dissolving member referendum in February, Membershipfirst Hollywood SAG Board members & SAG Exec Doug Allen have read from every page of the extra-legal playbook to try and short-circuit a fast-and-hard union-to-union contract with AFTRA — Phase-One-to-Merger. And after hiring outside legal counsel (with our dues $$$) and ultimately being told that virtually all of the above AFTRA-bashing was in fact extra-legal and unconstitutional, upon learning the truth Hollywood SAG Board members issued howls of frustration & rage heard from Wilshire to Warner Brothers.

Phase One is an agreement, a contract. It isn’t silly putty. NOW I understand why historians say if we don’t remember our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them.

In 1981 the SAG-side Phase 1 signers knew SAG had the disproportionately large share of the three-hour prime-time block of programming & motion pictures, while AFTRA had jurisdiction over the rest of the twenty-one hours of the daily broadcast clock. This is nothing new, so for Frances Fisher & friends to feign looks of horror and trot out the “We’ve got the lion’s share of the work” argument makes me wonder if they have any comprehension of what SAG & AFTRA leadership did for us in 1981 by creating Phase One in the first place.

Phase One’s purpose? To tie two entertainers’ unions with common membership together in negotiations to forestall competition. SAG leaders understood that then. Why not now? Something in the water? ADHD? Too much TV? Current SAG leadership expects AFTRA to sit idly by, smile wanly, and continue to jointly negotiate while a decertification of an AFTRA soap is being fomented?

And to hear over & over the “Lion’s share” argument mixed in with “We are ACTORS” makes me think of an aging cheerleader who returns to a high school reunion and must constantly remind everyone who she thinks she used to be back in the glory days, while she picks an old girlfriend’s pocket.

That, plus the assertion that AFTRA members don’t work prime-time theatrical and don’t have a stake in DVDs & residuals & new media?!? This is pure pig-poop. I prize my SAG resid checks from work I perform on motion pictures & prime-time tv programs as much as anyone else and am grateful for the movie trailer provision of the SAG theatrical contract under which dozens of us work every day.

Plus Hollywood SAG Boarders have this rather unseemly obsession with the John-Connolly-AFTRA-Prez-in-the-ladies-room incident years ago during AMPTP joint negotiations where they witnessed what they perceived as an in-the-girls’-toilet-political-putch-devil’s-deal done between AFTRA, SAG/NY & Regional SAG Branches, that forever kept SAG-side negotiators from achieving a decent contract. John is Exec of Actors Equity now and is currently unavailable to serve as bogeyman.

I demand that both my unions’ leadership act like adults with the members’ interests at heart. This pissing contest and “I’m top-o-show, I matter most,” is such disingenuous bullshit. If so, why must the current crop of elected Hollywood SAG leaders lean on background players for their political base?

When I see arguments like the above, I believe that what lurks beneath is the ache to belong, to still be seen as “in the acting game.” It’s the Hollywood in-the-club cult-of-showbiz-personality poison writ sad. We’re ALL wage slaves to the Man, and when elected Hollywood SAG officers start playing oneupsmanship and decertification brigandry on their sister union/erstwhile negotiating partner (union raiding: unconstitutional for AFL-CIO members) — I don’t give a shit if it’s coat-checkers and grass-mowers…these are unions, not Uzbek soccer teams.

If the current elected SAG leadership were sincere unionists, they would be in harmonious and single-minded relationship with AFTRA leadership over issues that affect us all, including joint bargaining, exhibition windows, P&H minimums, etc.

But what has our SAG dues money been spent on for the past year? Posturing, warring like aging frat & sorority brats throwing balloons filled with piss at the house next door, sending out anti-AFTRA attack pieces, and paying outside legal counsel only to be told that all of the above anti-AFTRA machinations are extra-legal and probably unconstitutional….That’s not unionism. And neither is salivating over a soap diva threatening to change t-shirts from AFTRA to SAG. Gosh, I wonder how much malice-aforethought & scheming went into THAT…THE VERY INCIDENT THAT HAS CRIPPLED SAG’s CHANCES OF GETTING A DECENT CONTRACT THIS TIME AROUND!!!! It gives the phrase “self-defeating” a whole new meaning.

And for the “Allens” to say AFTRA’s known about the Bold & Beaut problem for weeks is purposely conflating two totally separate incidents: 1) The enquiry put out by soap actors about foreign resids owed to them which was answered by AFTRA in March, and 2) The rude suprise that alledgedly a membership stalwart on the SAG Board advised Susan Flannery to start the decertification petition; this wasn’t known until last week and is the proverbial shit that hit the fan. (Why would Flannery wait 21 years to start an anti-AFTRA petition? She’s paid w-a-a-a-y over scale and reputedly has hiring & firing power on the show. Can she also say, “Sign my little petition or perhaps you’d like to seek work on Gen’l Hosp?” Who was her “friend” on the SAG Board who alledgedly bloody bad-mouthed AFTRA and said, “Yeahhhh, decert, baby; that’ll show ‘em.)

SAG leadership bats its eyelashes now and says, “Oh, yes, we always intended to bargain jointly with AFTRA,” and then licks its chops over a soap opera decertifying?!? This is the two-facedness of our masques of tragedy.

This isn’t a game. It isn’t spy-vs-spy in a magazine for thirteen year olds. It’s union versus management. If only the current claque of elected Hollywood SAG Board officers fully understood that.

Bill Ratner,
AFTRA National & L.A. Board Member — working SAG & AFTRA member since 1981